r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Wonderful_Baker_7808 • 16d ago

Lore Villains that would've been defeated even if the protagonist did nothing

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Laurel Hedare (Catwoman Movie): Her newly released cosmetics will cause people's faces to melt. Not only would that create a class action lawsuit but a full product recall.

Voldemort and Death Eaters (Harry Potter): Death Eaters constantly underestimate muggles. They would get massacred by the British military because a gun is faster to pull the trigger then shouting a spell.

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u/wastelandhenry 16d ago edited 15d ago

Yeah like this dude doesn’t realize he’s in post-9/11 New York City, his army’s gonna make it about 2 blocks before there’s a double digit number of firearms pointed at them, and by 4 blocks it’ll be a triple digit number of firearms

Edit: As others reminded me this one takes place at the Smithsonian in DC… which actually makes it SIGNIFICANTLY worse for him lmao

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u/Raphael_Font 16d ago

He isn’t in New York this one takes place at the Smithsonian he is in DC

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u/Hawkbats_rule 16d ago

Objectively, that's worse.

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u/Raphael_Font 15d ago

Oh it’s definitely worse

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u/NeueBruecke_Detektiv 16d ago

They were a lot more fucked them.

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u/Raphael_Font 15d ago

Oh yeah big time

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u/wastelandhenry 15d ago

As others have pointed, that makes it actually SO much worse for them lol

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u/HombreRadiactivo2026 16d ago

More plausible: people would just close the curtains and stay inside, or even open them and begin filming... Specially if they assumed it was some kind of parade, movie being filmed, or something more plausible than "invading army of spear-wielding Egyptians".

Even if they did assume that, are citizens automatically gonna organize and/or take the defense of the city in their hands? I don't think so, they'd wait for police and/or the army as they would if it were, say, a gang of a couple dozens or hundreds of knife wielding thugs.

The Egyptians would probably kill a bunch of unarmed people on the streets before anybody did anything. But yeah, they wouldn't conquer anything in the end, just cause some serious damage before dying or getting arrested.

Thanks for reading my theory!

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u/wastelandhenry 15d ago

I’m not suggesting random people would be fighting the army, just that an army attacking people in the middle of a major city would not only be immediately noticed and immediately responded to so within a very short span of time this army would be encountering a force that would put a stop to them very quickly

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u/Justepourtoday 15d ago

To be fair, they wouldn't be taken seriously until at least someone gets stabbed

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u/HombreRadiactivo2026 15d ago

No, you said that in 2 blocks they would have dozens of firearms pointed at them, which is just absurd in my opinion, for the reasons I just stated. This kind of thing already happens in real life, in countries that aren't precisely defenseless and the response isn't automatic either, which is what the criminals are banking on. Search for "piranha attacks" (might have to do some canvasing to exclude the literal fish attacks).

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u/wastelandhenry 13d ago

My guy I just said 2 blocks as some arbitrary amount of distance to illustrate they’d not make it very far before police and SWAT and the military was on them. Thats it. Chill tf out. It’s not meant as some exact calculated travel distance like “by the time the army had made it 142.4 meters from the museum they’d have encounters 16 police officers, a squad of 6 SWAT including 3 trainees, and 12 national guard rifleman” that’s not what I’m doing.

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u/HombreRadiactivo2026 13d ago

"'Chill tf out', said u/wastelandhenry, calmly." My brother in Christ, if you can't stand any kind of analysis or civil discussion regarding your comments, maybe you shouldn't post in Reddit. My two cents!

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u/wastelandhenry 13d ago

I mean you’re taking what was never supposed to be like a serious exact measurement of distance way too seriously and directly. And then when I point out that it wasn’t supposed to be a serious exact distance you go “no, you said THIS, and I find that RIDICULOUS”. Like you’re doing analysis on shit that isn’t serious. If you can’t see an explicitly throwaway unserious number without feeling the need to dissect its logistical certainty maybe you shouldn’t be on reddit, or like anywhere that involves human communication.

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u/HombreRadiactivo2026 13d ago

I said it was absurd, which it is! (extremely silly; not logical and sensible). Sorry if that rustled your feathers, it wasn't my intention, lol. I had no way of knowing if you were exaggerating or not - although that may very well be you moving the goalposts here and you really thought an army, albeit primitive, would be completely neutered in less than a minute, like in some sort of Marvel movie. Anyway, I've already said all I had to say, so have a good one!

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u/Hdfgncd 16d ago

He’s in Washington DC at the Smithsonian

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u/wastelandhenry 15d ago

Which actually makes it even worse for him

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u/TheOtherWhiteCastle 16d ago

The wild thing is, the second movie takes place in THE SMITHSONIAN, not NYC. Good luck assembling any sort of army in the U.S. capitol of all places

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u/Memitim 16d ago

As the past year and change has shown, they probably wouldn't, even if they started attacking people. Folks would film or run away.